Assessing the Remote Engineering Lab VISIR at Al-Quds University in Palestine

Engineering labs play a vital role in engineering education, make science come alive, and supply students with better understanding of theories. As a result, they contribute to the improvement of their knowledge and skills. Remote labs not enable sharing of teaching resources such as devices, equipment and instrumentation between universities, but also relax time and space constraints; yet they are considered as a complementary asset to the traditional hands-on labs. This paper is concerned with a two-stage assessment of the engineering remote lab VISIR. In the first stage, the assessment investigated if the students accept to use VISIR in their future lab courses at the Faculty of Engineering at Al-Quds University in Palestine. In the second stage, a deeper analysis will be performed to compare VISIR to hands-on and simulators based on the evaluation criteria: performance, students’ retention rate and satisfaction survey.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Two-Stage Assessment of the Remote Engineering Lab VISIR at Al-Quds University in Palestine

Engineering labs are an essential part in engineering education since they provide practical knowledge for students, illustrate concepts and principles, and improve technical skills. Remote labs allow devices, equipment and instrumentations to be shared with other universities. Additionally, they relax time and space constraints, and are capable of being adapted to the pace of each student in case there was insufficient time in the laboratory. This paper describes an empirical study, which embeds two stages of assessment. In the first stage, we are concerned with finding out the level of flexibility when applying the engineering remote lab VISIR as a contemporary remote lab technology in the engineering faculty at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem in Palestine, and whether the engineering students will accept such technology to interact with in their future lab courses or not. In the second stage of the assessment study, a more in-depth comparative analysis will be carried out in order to have a categorization of VISIR in the landscape of the engineering labs such as hands-on and simulations. The three lab approaches will be compared with each other by means of an experimental testing based on assessment criteria that are in accordance with the fundamental course objectives of engineering instructional labs: student’s retention rate and satisfaction survey, as well as their performance.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Why visir? Proliferative activities and collaborative work of visir system

Online laboratories have been increasingly deployed in several universities and institutions around the world. Besides helping to leverage a number of educational developments, they enable teachers and researchers to share their knowledge across institutional boundaries. It has been observed that online laboratories have a positive effect on students' skills acquisition because they promote collaborative work and allow students to perform physical experiments remotely usually 24/7. Today, one can find a wide range of online laboratories in the literature that are supporting many subjects in different engineering and sciences fields, especially in electric and electronic engineering. One such system is VISIR (Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality). VISIR plays an important role in electrical and electronic engineering education by allowing both teachers and students to conduct real experiments with electric and electronic circuits, via the Internet. It also complements hands-on laboratories by serving thousands of students globally, as a result of being spread by several universities and institutes worldwide. Presently, VISIR is installed in eight higher education institutions), in six different countries (Austria, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, India, and Georgia), and is the first remote lab in the world supporting a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). In addition, a number of experiments in VISIR can be freely accessed, using the guest user mode, depending on the institutions available resources. In this study, we have used the data collection method focused on all scholarly papers that are related to the VISIR system, which allowed collecting references from many resources such as conference proceedings, book chapters, and journals. The objective of the paper is to illustrate the researches activities, developments, and studies that contributed to making of VISIR the best remote controlled laboratory in the world, according to the GOLC (Global Online Laboratory Consortium). Our research included the following dimensions: a) courses and subjects that include experiments done in VISIR, from different universities and institutes; b) the number of scholarly papers and authors related to VISIR, with a reference to the publishing sources; c) the different technologies used to deliver the laboratory experiments; d) the total number (and its evolution) of users who have accessed the several VISIR nodes; e) finally, the collaborative work resulting from the use and share of the VISIR system. To conclude, the paper discusses the impact of VISIR in the role of the laboratory in undergraduate engineering education, in particular in electrical and electronic engineering, and its contribution to the collaborative work observed among the academic staff, researchers and students who used it.N/

Using a 3-tier Training Model for Effective Exchange of Good Practices in as ERASMUS+ Project

VISIR+ is an Erasmus+ project that aims to develop educational modules for electric and electronic circuits theory and practice following an enquiry-based teaching and learning methodology. The project has installed five new VISIR remote labs in Higher Education Institutions located in Argentina and Brazil, to allow students doing more experiments and hence acquire better experimental skills, through a combination of traditional (hands-on), remote and virtual laboratories. A key aspect for the success of this project was to motivate and train teachers in the underpinning educational methodology. As such, VISIR+ adopted a 3-tier training process to effectively support the use of VISIR in the Institutions that received it. This process is based on the “train the trainer” approach, which required the participating partner institutions to identify and engage a number of associated partners, interested in using their newly installed remote lab. To measure the quality of the training process, the same satisfaction questionnaire was used in all training actions. This paper presents a detailed description of the training actions along with the analysis of the satisfaction questionnaire results. Major conclusions are that the quality level of the training process remained practically the same across all training actions and that trainees sometimes considered the practical use of the VISIR remote lab as difficult, irrespectively of where and when the training action took place.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

RELLE: Sistema de Gerenciamento de Experimentos Remotos

TCC (graduação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Campus Araranguá. Bacharelado em Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação.Este trabalho trata do desenvolvimento de um sistema de gerenciamento de experimentos remotos, utilizando uma arquitetura baseada em módulos de hardware e software capazes de oferecer a usuários acesso remoto à laboratórios em diversas áreas do conhecimento. A solução foi concebida utilizando uma arquitetura baseada em soluções open source e de baixo custo, e que podem ser utilizados em diferentes níveis de ensino. A arquitetura é baseada em quatro módulos: o Laboratório Real, que trata dos experimentos, Computador Embarcado, que compreende a parte de disponibilização do experimento na rede, RELLE, que é o sistema de gerenciamento, e Cliente, que trata do modelo de acesso utilizado para manipulação dos experimentos. O trabalho foi desenvolvido em três fases nomeadas Planejamento, Protótipo, e Validação, baseadas no método Merise, que é uma metodologia que aborda todas as fases do desenvolvimento de sistemas de informação. O cliente para comunicação com os experimentos foi desenvolvido utilizando o framework PHP Laravel junto ao framework CSS Bootstrap. No desenvolvimento do cliente foi utilizada a metodologia ágil para desenvolvimento de software Scrum. O cliente pode ser acessado através de dispositivos móveis ou convencionais, e tem funções de gerenciamento de usuários e experimentos, além de integração com o ambiente virtual de aprendizagem Moodle, que fornece suporte documental e didático aos experimentos. O ambiente foi avaliado por especialistas da área de educação e tecnologias e experimentação remota, e foi aplicado em turmas experimentais no ensino básico e superior.This work approaches the development of a remote labs management system using an architecture based on hardware and software modules, capable of offering users remote access to laboratories in various fields of knowledge. The solution was designed using an architecture based on open source and cost effective solutions, and can be used at different levels of education. The architecture is based on four modules: the Laboratory, referring to the experiments, Embedded Computer, providing the lab access through the internet, RELLE, which is the management system, and Client, about the access model used for the manipulation of experiments. The study was conducted in three phases named planning, prototype, and validation, based on Merise method, which is a methodology that addresses all phases of the development of information systems. The client for communication with the experiments was developed using the PHP framework Laravel and the CSS framework Bootstrap. It was used Scrum agile methodology on the client development. The client can be accessed through mobile or conventional devices, and has user management functions and experiments, as well as integration with the virtual learning environment Moodle, which provides documentary and educational support to the labs. The environment was evaluated by experts from the field of technology in education and remote experimentation, and was applied in experimental classes in primary, secondary and higher education

Experiences with Deploying VISIR at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem

Engineering and science labs play a central role in illustrating concepts and principles as well as improving technical skills. Through introducing of remote labs, it will be possible to share devices, equipment and instrumentations with lots of universities. Moreover, they relax time and space constraints and are capable to be adapted to pace of each student if there was insufficient time in lab; this contribution reports the experiences at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem in Palestine with deploying VISIR, and represents the results of an evaluation for its appropriateness as a complementary asset to traditional labs. The questionnaire for the interaction between students and VISIR includes survey questions with the goal to measure the evaluation criteria: usefulness and satisfaction, sense of reality/immersion and usability.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

COVID-2019 Impacts on Education Systems and Future of Higher Education

The rapid outbreak of the COVID-19 has presented unprecedented challenges on education systems. Closing schools and universities and cancelling face-to-face activities have become a COVID-19 inevitable reality in most parts of the world. To be business-as-usual, many higher education providers have taken steps toward digital transformation, and implementing a range of remote teaching, learning and assessment approaches. This book provides timely research on COVID-19 impacts on education systems and seeks to bring together scholars, educators, policymakers and practitioners to collectively and critically identify, investigate and share best practices that lead to rethinking and reframing the way we deliver education in future